MACHESNEY PARK — A proposed rezoning that would pave the way for an apartment development behind a string of single-family homes along Forest Hills Road is agitating the neighborhood.

Residents have turned out in droves at local meetings to protest the rezoning from R-1 to R-3, or from single-family to multi-family dwellings.

Hawk’s View Inc. submitted an application for the rezoning in June. According to officials, the applicant is pursuing the rezoning but plans to sell the property to be developed into apartments north of West Lane Road.

And that’s what has residents upset. Neighbors there don’t want apartments.

“I’ve heard as well that it’s going to be low-income rental property, which is what we were totally afraid of to begin with,” said Gayle Ciembronowicz, a Hawks View Drive resident whose backyard abuts the 2.87-acre undeveloped field that’s subject to the rezoning.

“We don’t want multi-family structures that are not owned by residents.

“They don’t care about the upkeep. I don’t want to look at garbage Dumpsters out my back window. We’re afraid that we’re going to get landlords that either are deadbeat landlords or not local, and we have no one to deal with. All of a sudden it’s just a bunch of riffraff and the cops are called there all the time.

“That’s not what we want in our backyard. You see our view. We paid for that view.”

The village’s staff and the Zoning Board of Appeals recommended denial. At an upcoming 5:30 p.m. Monday meeting, the Village Board’s Planning and Development Committee will review the rezoning request at the village offices, 300 Roosevelt Road.

The committee is made up of three trustees — James Kidd, Kate Tammen and Erick Beck. The full Board of Trustees then could review the rezoning application at a 6 p.m. meeting on Aug. 18.

Mayor Jerry Bolin hasn’t decided how he’ll vote on the matter. But he agrees that the village may need more apartment living for the developments and businesses coming into the region.

However, “I personally think that if I was a resident in that neighborhood and I lived in the area where that was going to be built, I would not be in favor of it.”

Messages left this week with the rezoning applicant, Hawk’s View Inc., were not returned.

Machesney Park staff reports sent to the Planning and Zoning Commission distinctly state that the rezoning “could negatively impact the values and the comfort of the surrounding residences. Also, the traffic impact of a dense residential development accessed off of Forest Hills Road could affect the safety on this roadway.”

The two-page document goes on: “This rezoning is being sought without a development plan.” The staff report raised concerns about not having a proposal with density and buffering plans or deed restrictions, as would be required with a formal development plan.

“This rezoning request does not conform to orderly development of the area, and therefore Staff recommends denial of this speculative change,” the report says.

Kristine Stensland, a Hawks Ridge resident, is concerned about driving down property values in the neighborhood.

“We have coyotes down there, which, you know, that’s kind of neat,” she said. “I think we have one of the nicer subdivisions in Machesney Park.”